1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inflatable packaging comprising a valve formed by a channel made between two flexible sheets extending at least partly inside said walls and having a first opening communicating with the exterior of the packaging and a second opening communicating with the interior of the packaging, these flexible sheets being designed to be pressed against each other as soon as a force keeping them apart is removed, thus preventing the inflating gas from escaping from the packaging.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention also relates to an inflatable packaging comprising four superimposed flexible walls joined around part of their perimeter, then joined in pairs around the rest of the perimeters, in order to form a pocket between the two intermediate walls, a communication being formed through said intermediate walls, outside the pocket, in order to form an inflatable space on either side of this pocket, a valve formed by a channel made between two flexible sheets extending inside the walls of said inflatable space and having a first opening communicating with the exterior and a second opening communicating with the interior of said inflatable space, these flexible sheets being designed to be pressed against each other as soon as a force keeping them apart is removed, thus preventing the inflating gas from escaping from said inflatable space.
Such a packaging is known from its description in WO 95/23742 and one particular system for enabling the packaging to be deflated easily has been proposed in which a tab attached to an opening formed through one of the walls of this packaging is torn away. For this purpose the attached tab is welded around the opening passing through the wall, so that when this tab is pulled the wall is torn and the packaging deflates.
From the point of view of manufacture, the addition of the tab means introducing an extra component. The main disadvantage, however, has to do with the opening of the packaging: since the tab is welded to the wall of the packaging, pulling the tab away must tear this wall, but the wall must be as strong as possible to avoid being damaged during handling and transport. The whole purpose of such a packaging is of course to protect fragile merchandise during its transport, which means that to tear the wall by means of a tab may require too great an effort for this to be done by hand. It is also possible that it would be the tab that would tear around the weld, instead of the wall of the bag, necessitating the eventual use of a cutting or perforating tool to deflate the packaging and remove the merchandise from the pocket--which is precisely what it is wished to avoid.